Macworld Guessing: iPhone Tethering, DRM-Free iTunes

Apple is expected to announce a $30-a-month iPhone tethering plan from AT&T and will also drop all DRM from its iTunes Music Store in what is the rumor du jour. Using the iPhone as a modem and copy-protection-free songs from the iTunes Store are not a new idea by a long shot, but the move is set to bring these highly requested features to consumers without the need of them to fiddle illegally (read jailbreak) with their phone.

Various sources speculating around the Macworld Expo this week, say that Apple will announce a 5GB data cap, $30-a-month (on top of your existing AT&T iPhone price plan) iPhone-as-modem feature, so that users can connect from their laptops to the Internet via their iPhone. The expected price plan could be quite expensive on top of the usual iPhone data plan, however, it is cheaper than an EV-DO or HSDPA card plan, usually around $60-a-month.

In related news, it is also rumored that Apple will offer all songs from the iTunes Music Store (ITMS) without any copy protection software attached. The move is said to come following deals with the three largest music labels (Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Music) in exchange of Apple becoming more flexible on pricing. In order, ITMS could be split into three price categories as following: catalog songs (older hits for $0.79), midline songs (new songs but not highly popular for $0.99), and top hits (for over $1).

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